In terms of size, agility, durability and athleticism, Andre Drummond is one of basketball’s most precious pieces of clay. Drummond is only seven months older than Joel Embiid and has already played in 304 games and over 9,000 minutes. For all of that on-court exposure, it still so often feels like Drummond is just beginning to understand the nuances of the game and has so much more room for improvement.

Drummond and the Pistons agreed last fall to forgo an automatic extension to maximize their cap space for 2016 with his lower cap hold, making this a rare situation in which a player of his caliber actually hits restricted free agency as Kawhi Leonard did last offseason with the Spurs. The Pistons ultimately traded expiring contracts for Tobias Harris as their functional free agent signing though they can still make another significant signing with Drummond’s cap hold. 

Drummond and the Pistons agreed upon a five-year, $130 million max contract with the fifth year a player option about 12 hours after the start of free agency.

Drummond is a physical force in the paint on both sides of the floor that makes Stan Van Gundy’s four-out system possible. Drummond ranked 14th in the NBA in Defensive Real Plus Minus as he’s very good at defending pick-and-rolls and of course his league-best rebounding. 

Drummond came into the NBA at 19 with a PER of 21.6 and that has stayed relatively constant at 22.6 in his second season, 21.4 in 14-15 and 21.2 this past season. While Drummond’s usage and rebounding rates have increased, his offensive efficiency has decreased. 

The Pistons’ offense runs through Drummond’s pick-and-roll partnership with Reggie Jackson. Drummond will finish at the rim in advantageous situations but he needs to develop the kick out to open spot-up shooters when the defense collapses and packs the paint to stop settling for lower percentage floaters. This is more important than any development he makes as a post player as that should really only be part of his game if he can seal a matchup right under the rim for an immediate turnaround dunk.

Drummond scored just 0.73 points per possession on 405 post attempts with his rather rudimentary set of tools. 

The effect Drummond has on maximizing Jackson in the pick-and-roll is real as defenses prefer to bet against a Jackson miss on even an open jumper or drive to the bucket than letting Drummond truck down the lane to the rim. 

Drummond shot better than 60 percent during each of his first two seasons and that has fallen to 51.4 percent and 52.1 percent these past two seasons while he’s also shot less than 40 percent on free throws.

Detroit lacks playmakers off the dribble beyond Jackson, which really limits what Drummond can do on offense since defenses don’t need to worry about overly complicated actions. 

If the NBA changes their Hack-A rules, Drummond instantly becomes an even more valuable player. Drummond shot just 35.5 percent on his free throws on 586 attempts.

Drummond is not yet the type of innate rim protector or all-around defensive force he’s capable of being with his athleticism and size as he ranked 55th in the NBA in block percentage. Drummond also struggled to defend the roll man, allowing 1.13 points per possession and also in the post in which he was similarly well below average. 

Drummond doesn’t turn 23 until August, as he was a younger rookie than he had to be when he reclassified to begin his freshman season at UConn one season earlier. If Drummond can become a more intelligent defensive player and anticipate when and where he needs to help with more consistency and a higher motor, he instantly becomes a top-10 player in the NBA and leads Detroit to a consistent top-5 defense.

The Pistons’ defense was 3.4 points per 100 possessions better with Drummond on the floor, which is a consequential difference but not as drastic of a split we see with truly elite defensive players.

Drummond is worthy of his max contract, especially since he doesn’t qualify for the Rose Rule, in his present state if he remains exactly the players he is now and just as durable. The possibility of the Pistons imploring Drummond to meaningfully improving his defense, his grisly free throw shooting (or saved by a major rule change) and decision-making with the ball on his rim runs is the difference between him being that ‘thanks for being really good’ and ‘thanks for being an MVP caliber menace’ that can lead just about any combination of shooters to The Finals as Stan Van Gundy and Dwight Howard did in 2009.

Grade for Pistons: A-

Drummond took some degree of risk in forgoing his extension until after his fourth NBA season but he made it out unscathed and was a team player giving the Pistons a legitimate chance to improve the roster around him.

The ability for Drummond to reeneter free agency before he's 27 with a player option for Year 5 is significant if he's still largely dependent on his athleticism.

Grade for Andre Drummond: A